"Changes, they are a'comin'" The weight machines are likely to be coat hangers for the equally as successful Texans varsity jackets. Fitzgerald and his staff' specific goal will be to grow them bigger, faster, and stronger. With this new philosophy, hopefully we will see a trend to lesser injuries. When concrete meets balsa wood, concrete usually wins. It'll be nice for our players to drop their usual role of the weak and fragile balsa wood, and take on the properties of a non-yielding concrete wall.

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New strength and conditioning program already having an impact at Penn State

BY DONNIE COLLINS (STAFF WRITER)

Published: February 20, 2012

Jake Kiley is a Penn State recruit looking for some Penn State information, and last weekend, he took to Silas Redd's Twitter account to find it.

The cornerback from New Hampshire asked the Nittany Lions' star tailback about the intricacies of the Nittany Lions' new strength and conditioning program, citing how anxious he was to get to State College and start working to get stronger.

Redd returned some sage advice.

"It's a real good change of pace," Redd tweeted back. "Hope you are ready to work, though."

Think there have been a lot of changes at Penn State since Joe Paterno was fired on Nov. 9? The one that has occurred in the weight room might be as significant as any of them, if you listen to the players who have been getting used to it over the past month.

In January, Penn State severed ties with longtime strength and conditioning coach John Thomas and his staff, hiring former South Carolina strength and conditioning coach Craig Fitzgerald to replace him.

Last week, the Nittany Lions announced the hiring of three new assistant strength coaches - Dwight Galt IV, Sean Hayes and Steven Williams Jr. Galt and Williams worked with Fitzgerald at South Carolina, while Hayes comes in from Jacksonville University. Both Hayes and Williams are Harvard graduates.

Fitzgerald brings a new staff and a new philosophy on how football players should best prepare for the rigors of a Big Ten schedule. When the new program took effect in January, players immediately noticed the difference.

More accurately, they felt it. In quivering legs. In suddenly sore back and chest muscles. In their backs and in their shoulders.

"The old way, there was a lot of work on machines. Not anymore," quarterback and West Scranton grad Matt McGloin said. "There are a lot of dead lifts now. There are a lot of squats. A lot of power cleans. A lot of bench press, which we are not used to. That's probably why some people had trouble with it. But, it is exciting.

"You can tell by looking at guys how different it is."

The difference is as obvious as the differences between Fitzgerald and the man he replaced.

Thomas was Penn State's strength coach since 1991, and despite his long tenure at the school, it was his training philosophy that likely would be considered untraditional in comparison to Fitzgerald's.

Thomas implemented the High Intensity Training (HIT) method, which focused more on building endurance than brute strength and impressive bulk. In the old days using HIT, players would train mostly on machines, focusing on lifting lower rates and performing more reps. They'd lift those lighter weights repeatedly, until they were no longer to execute another rep. And at that point, a certain amount of weight would be removed, at which point, the player would continue to lift until his muscles were, again, exhausted.

In short, Penn State football players went through workouts very similar to ones that they'd have gone through had they enrolled in the military. Thomas, in fact, was once head strength trainer at the United States Military Academy.

The method had its benefits. Using machines during the exercises put a premium on technique, which limited unnecessary muscle strains and injury while working out. It also made the Nittany Lions leaner, better able to handle the cardiovascular workload of a tough fourth quarter. And besides, the late Joe Paterno used to despise playing overweight linemen. This method helped keep the excess weight off.

The HIT program came with a bit of controversy, though. As years passed, fans complained that Penn State's linemen weren't as big, strong and physical as others around the Big Ten. Defensive tackles looked like defensive ends. Linebackers who looked skinny at Penn State were becoming statuesque almost overnight in the NFL.

Thomas and HIT were often handed part of the blame during discussions about whether the Penn State coaching staff was doing enough to develop players.

Fitzgerald's hire was roundly applauded by Penn State fans, mostly because his program is different from the HIT program.

Free weights are back. So are the max bench presses which the HIT program deemed useless. Fitzgerald's focus, players say, is to make them more explosive, better able to absorb contact. In short, to be as physical going forward as they'd like to have been in the past.

"At the end of the day, you can lift the weight until you're blue in the face, but you've got to go out and play ball," linebacker Michael Mauti said. "There are certain things you can do in the weight room that will help you out, I believe. And I believe this program is going to do that. It'll make guys stronger. It'll make guys faster. And it will put more muscle on some guys so we can be more physical. I think that's what we've been lacking in the last couple of years. We have some great players here. But that's how you take it to the next level.

Fitzgerald and his staff' specific goal will be to grow them bigger, faster, and stronger. With this new philosophy, hopefully we will see a trend to lesser injuries.

What was the old philosophy? Smaller, weaker, & slower?

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Thomas implemented the High Intensity Training (HIT) method, which focused more on building endurance than brute strength and impressive bulk. In the old days using HIT, players would train mostly on machines, focusing on lifting lower rates and performing more reps. They'd lift those lighter weights repeatedly, until they were no longer to execute another rep. And at that point, a certain amount of weight would be removed, at which point, the player would continue to lift until his muscles were, again, exhausted.

That's not HIT at all. HIT is about working the muscle to failure in 1 set (8 to 10 reps) & it's usually a full body workout... if you're using the Darden method, he stresses resting to allow the muscle to grow. 1 workout a week (again, working every muscle to failure) would be too much for an adult male.

What was the old philosophy? Smaller, weaker, & slower?
That's not HIT at all. HIT is about working the muscle to failure in 1 set (8 to 10 reps) & it's usually a full body workout... if you're using the Darden method, he stresses resting to allow the muscle to grow. 1 workout a week (again, working every muscle to failure) would be too much for an adult male.

No..........just seemed like it was the RESULTS of the old philosophy........

I'm hardly an expert on kinesiology, and even I know that compound exercises are exponentially more beneficial than the isolated benefits of machines.

Maybe I have been naïve, but when I saw all of the machines in the Texans training room, I always just assumed they were for supplemental exercise and/or rarely used--do we know for certain Smith used them central to his training regimen?

__________________
"You always hear about how tough they are and all that stuff," Orton said. "I don't think they are tough. I think they are cheap..."

He can thank the Texans’ new strength and conditioning coach, Craig Fitzgerald, for that. And he does.

“He’s a great, great, great guy,” Lin said after a Rockets practice last week. “I can’t say more about him. He changed my career definitely. When I showed up, I was 170 and I was the weakest player to ever show up in the Harvard basketball program, just weight-wise. And when I left, I was one of the stronger guys there. He just taught me how to be more mentally tough. He pushed me. Man, he’s awesome.”

See, Fitzgerald, whom Bill O’Brien is bringing with him to the Houston Texans from Penn State, was the director of strength and conditioning at Harvard while Lin was in college and had a huge impact on the point guard’s career.

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“He just pushes you in ways you don’t think you can be pushed,” said former Penn State defensive lineman Daquan Jones, who is projected to be a high-round draft pick, at the Senior Bowl. “It’s a different type of workout. You test your body in every type of way, in every weather condition. It’s just something that gets you in shape and gets you ready for the football game.”

The old/'new coach' Cedric Smith was a fairly similar Olympic style work-out, and the machines had already been cleared out of the way back in 2010 to be replaced with power clean/manual weights, etc. :

(This a quote of Stephanie Stradley quoting a houstontexans article that is no longer available)

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Smith cleared out half of the weight room and filled it with eight “combo racks,” dual-sided racks on power clean platforms. Both sides of the racks can be used at the same time, allowing more players to train at once. The racks can be used for a variety of exercises, including power cleans, squats, bench press, incline bench, flat bench and pull-ups.

“I believe these exercises most translate the weight room to the football field,” Smith said. “These are football exercises in the weight room that, what I believe and what we believe as a strength staff, are what’s going to enable our guys to get better on the field.”

The combo racks aren’t the only difference. Smith also brought in plyometric jump pads, and a new set of dumbbells that will enable a wider range of motion during exercises.

There’s little emphasis on machines in Smith’s training philosophy, which he shared with HoustonTexans.com on Thursday.

“We want to work a little bit differently than they did in the past,” Smith said. “We basically believe more so in training on your feet. Stabilization, more explosiveness, power and strength; those are some of the things that, if you want to look at a broad view of what we do, would be involved in it. Posterior chain movements, back movements, core movements, corrective exercises (are involved) as well.”

I'm sure there are differences, but not as much as described in the video of the change from Penn State's HIT/machine style workouts.

The old/'new coach' Cedric Smith was a fairly similar Olympic style work-out, and the machines had already been cleared out of the way back in 2010 to be replaced with power clean/manual weights, etc. :

(This a quote of Stephanie Stradley quoting a houstontexans article that is no longer available)

I'm sure there are differences, but not as much as described in the video of the change from Penn State's HIT/machine style workouts.

Thanks. I remember having the discussion with PN and a few others around here about Cedric getting rid of the machines.

I truly hope he's able to do something that can translate to more speed on the field. Maybe it was our patch work for a LB corps, I dunno, but it seemed like we were always a step slower

__________________Kubiak: "They’re battling their tail off."Translation: They suck.OB: "They played hard with great effort."Translation: They suck.

Thanks. I remember having the discussion with PN and a few others around here about Cedric getting rid of the machines.

I truly hope he's able to do something that can translate to more speed on the field. Maybe it was our patch work for a LB corps, I dunno, but it seemed like we were always a step slower

Despite the original purported emphasis of Cedric on "losing" the machines, all indications from what I observed when passing the facility and from those I had opportunity to speak to, were that in practice, the machines were still a very significant part of the routine our players actually followed.

Guy seems full of energy & he's taking the right approach. machines can only go so deep in working out your musculature. Anyone who's seriously worked out knows that it's those 2nd & 3rd layers of mostly core postural muscles that put you over the top in terms of strength & explosiveness.

& You usually can't get at those muscle groups with machines. Free weights and "action" type exercises are the best way. That's when you start hearing people say things like "i'm sore in places i never knew i had muscles at."

If it's anything like he stated in the video, His methods are gonna introduce alot of shock to their muscles & many of these guys are gonna find out they weren't as strong as they thought they were.

I posted this over in the staff thread but I'll drop it here too since it applies:

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Originally Posted by bah007

Fitzgerald has a very solid reputation in the S&C community. I like this hire.

In this day and age it is really hard for me to believe that a top program like Penn St would have a S&C program based on HIT principles. In my experience, coaches who predominantly use HIT follow that style because they are unable to or uncomfortable trying to diagnose flaws in technique. Therefore, they don't want their players using heavy weights because the injury risk is magnified.

And machines don't put a premium on technique. They actually require no technique at all because the load can only move in a fixed range of motion.

The HIT style is fine and dandy if you play a sport that requires long term muscular endurance with little explosive power.

But football isn't like that. You need a certain level of endurance but each play is done at full speed and only lasts about five or six seconds at most. Because of that, you should train to maximize your ability to create power as quickly as possible so that you can make an impact within that small window of time.

The Olympic training method is IMO the best way to attain this. If you watch the video that CND linked you hear Fitzgerald talk about triple extension, which is the movement pattern from the ankle to the knee to the hip. The foundation of all explosive power comes from that movement and by mimicking those movements under a load in training you should be able to transfer that ability to the field.

Commenting as a fan based on just what I've seen on the field the last few years, I have long wondered about our strength and conditioning program. Yes, every team has injuries, but, it always seemed as if our injuries were frequent, and recovery from them lasted longer than most teams.

Guy seems full of energy & he's taking the right approach. machines can only go so deep in working out your musculature. Anyone who's seriously worked out knows that it's those 2nd & 3rd layers of mostly core postural muscles that put you over the top in terms of strength & explosiveness.

Huh? 2-3 layer of muscles is where strength and explosiveness comes from? As a 19yr strength I would disagree. Your deep core muscles are indeed important for spinal stabilization and posture but I'd say the glutes, quads and hammies are more important for strength and explosiveness

Please translate for us couch potatoes who think lifting anything heavier than a 12-pack should be done with a fork lift...

HIT is primarily a workout routine for bodybuilding. It's not a performance oriented routine. You train each bodypart at most once a week. And when you train it, you train it to failure.

HIT was developed by Arthur Jones, the guy who developed Nautilus machines and an integral part of HIT was originally working with machines instead of free weights. It has a tendency to neglect connective tissue and for athletes, this can turn into a lot of injuries: strains, pulls, etc.

The best way to get a lot out of HIT is to take tons of steroids while you're doing it along with HGH to protect your connective tissue. Of course, that's true of any training regimen but it's even more true for a HIT based approach.

I prefer an Olympic Lift oriented routine that focuses on speed and power along with a bunch of moves that are designed to mimic in-game motions. Or even a powerlifting based routine. Athletes should not be training like bodybuilders.

HIIT, otoh, is an approach to aerobic work where you alternate intervals. The HIIT approach to aerobic work has a lot of good studies behind it. It's better than just getting on a treadmill for an hour.